Laura Falin is a freelance writer in Colorado who has written for publications like BabyCenter, Colorado Parent Magazine, and Denver Parent. Laura loves hiking, paddle boarding, camping, and snowboarding, and she has run exactly one marathon. She now lives in Littleton, Colorado with her husband and four children. They love exploring the state and the rest of the U.S., usually by car, and they are pros at 20-hour road trips!
✔️ Fun Facts: Has 4 kids. Does annual 20-hour road trips with kids. Favorite running race is an all-day relay around Lake Tahoe.
Meet Laura
Frisco Kayak Park
Rocky Mountain National Park
Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre
Vail
📚 What was Your Favorite Travel Experience or Story?
My favorite travel moments have been the unplanned ones … skipping a tour of the Palace at Versailles to wander around town instead. Grabbing sandwiches on a road trip to eat next to Lake Erie, discovering it was live music night in the park, and watching my kids try to catch fireflies at dusk. Stopping at a black sand beach in Hawaii where the kids ran into the ocean in their clothes (pro tip: kids always promise to just wade and not get their clothes wet. This is a lie.)
🗺️ What’s Your #1 Expert Travel Tip?
I had much better travel experiences when I shifted my focus from trying to do All The Things to enjoying the moment. You’re not spending time and money to check things off a list. You’re spending time and money to have memorable experiences, and often those come in unexpected places!
Go to the market or a coffee shop, wander a local bookstore, or just go for a walk and see what people do in their everyday lives. From sidewalks in Sofia, Bulgaria to small towns in the middle of Utah or Texas, to the heart of New York City, it’s always fascinating to me to watch people go about their daily lives and see what they do differently … and what’s universal to all of us.